I was amazed. The house looked exactly like it had done twenty years ago. Now when I finally had got this far I suddenly hesitated. Was I really prepared to meet my father? Could we put all everything behind us and start anew? Could all the prejudice be overcome?
My childhood had not been a happy one since my mother passed away when I was ten. Neither my father nor I did handle it very well. It didn’t help that my father turned more and more discontented. The alcohol certainly didn’t improve the situation. Of course when his son started getting into problem with shop-lifting and other stuff things really started to get ugly. My father’s bad temper and dissatisfaction got worse and worse. However, I don’t think I’d have left home at seventeen if it hadn’t been for the gender issue. Intolerance is a terrible thing. It really can destroy a family.
The first years were terrible. At times I was close to starving. Then I was lucky to find a job with a fashion designer. It turned out I had a flair for the business and after a few years I started my own company. I and my partner through hard work and some luck have turned the company into a quite profitable business. Though we couldn’t have children of our own our two lovely adopted daughters were an added blessing.
Finally I was secure both financially and emotionally. It was time to return to my troubled relationship with my father. Was I ready to try to mend bridges? Was he?
That’s why I was standing outside my old home on Christmas Eve.
Now the question was should I turn back to the car where my family was waiting or should I be brave and go on? Having come so far I decided it would be a cowardly thing to turn back. I rang the bell.
The door opened. I had not expected to see a woman like that opening my father’s door. She just oozed kindness, contentment and understanding.
Finally I understood! Finally I realized the agony he must have suffered. How my rejection must have hurt him! Without any lingering doubts I embraced my sole surviving parent.
”Merry Christmas Mum!”
Comments
Nice gift!
What a great gift to give at Christmas, acceptance and more family to love! 'Nuff said!
ah ha!
Bru, my pet, for the very first time I was ahead of you in these convoluted, backward, upside down, mind bending tales you share. When I got to the end I jumped up and screamed, YES! One for the homey. Finally!
Ahhh, you slick, conniving, devlish story teller. You're losing your touch or I'm finally figuring your game plan? Okay, probably not either one. Just the odds of the dice rolling in my favor once in a hundred times? Remember the story about the police can make a hundred mistakes and the thief can't make even one. Odds darling, odds. Hugs kid, you did this one proud too.
Have fun with life it's too short to take it seriously. I believe you have more fun than allowed.
always,
Barb
Oklahoma born and raised cowgirl
I admit
If you have read my earlier stories the ending shouldn't be that hard to deduce. I just felt like a bit of old-fashioned Christmas sentimentality :)
Earlier I was thinking about writing a much more complicated and convoluted story. However, I have forgotten what I was going to write. Embarrassing!
Save One's Ideas
It's a good idea to note down one's ideas before one forgets them. It's quite possible that when an idea's gone, the opportunity's gone forever.
On occasion, I have gone back and looked at ideas from ten years earlier, and found myself quite surprised at what I thought. Even ideas from my teens.
-- Daphne Xu (a page of contents)
A Christmas Grandparent...?
Do your daughters get the opportunity to have a Grandmother they haven't yet met? This is a nice beginning...
Hugs, Jessica C
Jessica E. Connors
Jessica Connors
It would be very strange
if the family wouldn't join since they are waiting in the car. Yes, their Christmas looks like it could be a distinct threat to any diabetic.
Wait a minute! I saw that she
Wait a minute! I saw that she was a mother but was it her gay daughter that was being ignorant?!?! By the way it sounds she might be...
Bru, sometimes I think you try your hardest to slip us up ;)
Well done as usual!
I'm told STFU more times in a day than most people get told in a lifetime
Well, I do do my hardest to slip you up
It's not very easy you know. You are getting too clever by now ;)
Uh, Wait a Minute...
Gay daughter? So the shoplifting son is a sibling and not the narrator? If so, I missed that...
Eric
Not what I intended
but re-reading the story that interpretation is possible. Looks like I made the story more ambiguous than I intended.
Gay daughter?
This story had so many ways it could be interpreted by the reader, it is akin to police asking witnesses what they saw at a robbery. "What did you see?" The robber was tall, short, fat, skinny, bald, wearing a mask, had a mustache. The car was a Ford, Chevy, blue, gray, brown. Eye witnesses are unreliable at best.
Bru's story telling leaves readers with the same inability to nail down a definitive intent. Master Story Telling at it's finest. Gonna watch a John Wayne movie. At least there is no doubt how the story ends.
1: the narrator could be lesbian daughter
2: the narrator could be a gay son
3: the narrator could be straight but he or her wife or husband could be sterile
4: the narrator could be a sibling
The only thing definitive about a Bru story is... Give me time, it'll come to me...? Okay maybe not.
always,
Barb
Oklahoma born and raised cowgirl
I kinda like playing with your minds
So the ambiguity regarding the spouse and reason why the narrator couldn't have children, that was deliberate.
Sorry Barb, there is no escape! You know it, don't fight it :)
Not Gay Daughter
I think that I ruled out a gay born daughter, because the narrator was unable to have children of their own. A gay daughter might be able to have children.
-- Daphne Xu (a page of contents)
Great story! Please submit it
Great story! Please submit it in the Christmas story contest. I already have submitted one, but I think I'm in trouble if you submit this!!
Karen
Can't say anything different
Can't say anything different from what has already been said in so many of the comments. So---An excellent story; Merry Christmas to ALL and to ALL a Good Night. Bit early for that, but gotta get into the mood as it is fast approaching.
Totally taken by surprise
Unlike others, I never saw that coming.
Great ending to a neat little story.
Charlotte
Family Reconciliation
Family Reconciliation is a nice thing. Of course, it would have been better not to run off in the first place.
I'm curious whether it was father with the alcohol, or son with the alcohol. It was definitely son with the shoplifting.
BTW, I did notice the careful wording of the "gender issue". I saw just who was TG as one of the possibilities -- in fact, the most likely possibility.
-- Daphne Xu (a page of contents)
Random Solo Appearance
A heartwarming short story of a family's reconnection. I remembered the story, and I was sure I remembered the final twist (and I was right). So this time, one of the interesting aspects of the story was watching how the story sets up the reader, to yank the rug out from under him.
The narrator runs away at 17 because of intolerance -- no HS diploma even -- and lives on the streets at the ragged edge of starvation for a couple of years, but then gets into fashion design. A story does need an unhappy middle in order to get a truly happy ending.
-- Daphne Xu (a page of contents)
I had missed this story
which gave me a very nice feeling on a stressful day, so thank you for sharing it.
Happy to have been of any help
;)